Chronos Book I: Failing Fortress

So the last time I visited Leslie, she showed me a story that she had started but didn't continue. She had a few of these, it seemed, and this one was a couple of pages long. It was a Lord of the Rings fanfic. [EDIT: She wrote it and the other things she discussed yeeaaars ago.]

Well, I'm currently looking through stuff for my move, deciding what can stay here (including most of the nostalgic items), what should be taken, and so on. And... I found it. A notebook from about 1999, when I was 13 or 14. It's mostly illustrations. Some of the illustrations are flat-out amusing, some of them are slightly disturbing, and the rest are Star Wars ships, most of which I made up, and most of which I made up with stats. (I also designed several characters in this way, both for Star Wars and Lord of the Rings.) I was a budding roleplayer then, and at the end of that year I would join a Lord of the Rings roleplaying community, Elendor, which I am still a part of today. The concepts for the characters in this booklet, though, are hilarious for anyone that knows Lord of the Rings.

But there is a story in here too, or at least the start of one. I must've had a whole book series in my head. It stops after two pages. The handwriting is surprisingly legible, but the writing is about what I've come to expect. XD

"Brought you some food, rookie!" Landos's voice rang as he opened the door to the guardpost. "What is it?" Crasnell emerged from the window, facing west toward the sunset. "You'll like it! Roasted slug!" Crasnell cringed, but Landos reassured him, "Just kidding! Here! Have some lashnog!" Crasnell examined the blue root, smiled, and said, "Thanks! I'm starved!" "Heh, knew you wanted food!" Landos smiled and went to the window. Crasnell finished his food and joined Landos. "At your permission, sir, but, may I ask why we guard this pass?" Landos laughed a jolly laugh and answered, "Tradition! Why, hundreds of years ago, a great army, led by a powerful wizard named Sisen, came to our kingdom to wage war! We were ill prepared, though, and fought us to this pass. Here, several thousand archers gathered and guarded this place from take over. Within a day the army of Sisen arrived. Thinking that we fled, they stormed through. Halfway, they stopped. Their commander heard something. Suddenly it came! With a rain of arrows, our archers took out their top men. Scared, they fled. Thereafter a post was set here to guard from their return." "Wow!" said Crasnell, as he walked into his room. "Get some sleep!" Yelled Landos, "I'll guard." Crasnell spoke up another question from his room. "Was our kingdom that large to inhabit the Western Reach?" "Yes, certainly, though now this is the frontier," Landos answered, "The wild men took the west before we could come back. Not wanting war, we extended to the east, to the ocean. Now get some sleep!" Crasnell complied, and fell asleep with a thousand questions inside him.

"Rookie!!! Wake up!!!" Landos ran into his room, grabbed his sword, and approached Crasnell's room. He smelled of fear, his eyes wide awake. Crasnell emerged, and yelled a few dirty words. "Shut your mouth!" Landos yelled. "Ok, listen." In the silence at first nothing was heard, but then a faint, and orderly march was heard. Crasnell grew serious and grabbed a sword and his chain mail armor and followed Landos to the horses. "Get on either one, but make sure it will fly, for there is no time to be slow!" They mounted their horses and looked at the army.

The army was gigantic. There were about 10,000 knights with plate armor gleaming in the moonlight. Leading them were 10 robed figures, probably high wizards. Behind them were 5,000 archers, bows ready but not drawn. Then came the terror. In the back were 2,000 mages and 1,900 priests. No known mage army was that huge, save maybe the magic kingdom to the north, Inor Malis, but they weren't here now. Suddenly they spotted, but a mile away, and coming fast, 6 lightning scouts, of the other outpost, 6 miles down. But they were summoned, for only two manned that outpost.

Let's go!" Crasnell said. Landos, about to say the same thing, left with him. They sped long, but the scouts overcame them and they had to fight their way. Landos took down 2 of them easily, but his partner was knocked off. Crasnell yelled, "Go! I will draw them away!" At that he got up, drew his sword, and ran south. Landos yelled, but Crasnell was gone. Landos, knowing that Crasnell's sacrifice must be taken advantage of, fled east.

It took a lot of effort to not edit myself.

Space Center!

Today we went to the space center down in Huntsville, AL. (It's AL, right? Because AK is Alaska and AR is Arkansas and ABBA is ABBA.)

Considering I found out we were going yesterday, I might not have gone had it not been a place I really wanted to go. That, and it's not that long of a car ride. Certainly not as long as it takes to get to Atlanta.

So, why would I want to go to the Space Center? Ever since I've known how to read, and perhaps even a little bit before, space has been a fascination of mine. Astronauts in their suits, floating through space, stepping across the Lunar surface picking up rocks, piloting a rocket to some distant planet or moon, engaging orbit, and rolling down the windows to collect space dust in my fingers as it trailed by. As I read more, I learned about nebulae, galaxies, stars of all different sizes, quasars, black holes, dark matter, antimatter, and all the other concepts that have collected in the hundred years after Jules Verne dreamed a rocket.

At one point, I wanted to be an astronaut. A scientist. They said that we would be the ones to land on the Moon again, the ones to land on Mars again. What a dream! I had no clue of what either job entailed, but the rewards of discovery would be more than enough.

But somewhere, I got it stuck in my head that I wouldn't be a scientist after all. I wouldn't work in a lab or sit in a dusty room doing calculations with a team of mathematicians. No, I would sit in a dusty room to read books, write about them, lecture about them, and teach them to others. The allure of literature caught me, and I wasn't content to just read some in my off time, because then I knew I'd never really get as into it as I like. I still loved math and science, but they became something to know of and respect, and not necessarily something to do active research in, at least not right now. And, as far as I know, they don't launch English graduate students into space.

After looking at the exhibits today, I hesitated. Just a little. Seeing the Saturn V rocket, the space shuttle, all the different equipment and testimonies from various rockets and scientists, and that little girl in the IMAX movie who wanted to be an astronaut too, it made me wonder. Now I've looked at the requirements; if I went back to college and finished my degree in mathematics, I could technically be one. The maximum height is only an inch above mine, but I could promise to duck. My vision isn't 20/20, but I could get it corrected with lasers. Either that, or I can wait (and hope) for the day that space tourism becomes viable and relatively inexpensive.

Maybe, but it's not something to wait for.

No, no, maybe there'll be no going into space for me, not for a while. But considering the small number of people that are able to go, and the astronomical costs of getting them into space, and given the path I've chosen, I can live with that. I still have my dreams, my fantasies, and lots of science fiction to console me. Even Jules Verne in all his dry glory.

Distrust

(Quick! Watch Dr. Horrible before you have to pay for it tomorrow! Warning: it's part musical! Dr. Horrible.)

Someone wrote an interesting letter to the editor today. It was talking about doing research on candidates. A quote: "Most politicians are transparent, some are translucent and some are even dishonest."

Okay, ignore the lack of a comma that should be there. Now, let's think about the progression going on here. When I was reading it, I was expecting something like this:
Transparent---->Translucent---->Opaque

Remember that progression from some science class? Yes. Instead, what I find is this:

Transparent---->Translucent---->Dishonest

Now, what they are suggesting is that , for politicians, the best way to ensure that they are honest is to study how much they disclose, that is, how little privacy they allow for themselves in public life. Except... openness has nothing to do with honesty.

A person who maintains the privacy of their tax records and other things is not wrong for doing so, and doesn't have anything to hide. Such an argument holds for anyone who chooses to withhold information without a warrant. They are not obligated to give it, and their refusal to give it is not any sort of incrimination. Maybe they don't see why it is any business of the taxpayer. Maybe they are guilty of something. There is no way to derive possible guilt from a refusal, and if we are to assume they are innocent and profess an American love for privacy, we cannot force records from them without probable cause.

To be a cynic for a moment, it is entirely possible for a person to fake being open and still cheat the system. Of course, that most often happens in totalitarian places where we call that an exercise of liberty and intellectual honesty (Václav Havel).

But I point out that statement because it strikes a common thread with the argument that, as we have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide, we should hide nothing. Wiretapping, ISP monitoring, spying, bugging, credit records, crime records, tax records, travel records, phone records, camera surveillance, library records, all able to be violated as part of keeping us that little bit safer. When privacy is granted, it comes with the trust of the people granting it. The parents trust that the kid behind closed doors isn't concocting a bomb. When people are allowed to buy a house with opaque walls, those walls are inviolable except for when others are invited in, or when sufficient evidence of wrongdoing comes to light. We trust people in their other houses. When we walk amongst other people, we trust that the person wearing a long skirt isn't about to pull a gun from there or doesn't have shoplifted goods taped up the thighs. Society, at least the one we live in and tend to enjoy, requires trust, and that trust requires privacy, or the space for a person to act without being spied upon.

Don't we say that true honesty is doing the right thing when no one else is around? Can we be honest when we know someone is always watching? For politicians, perhaps they should be more open because so many people put their trust in them to go with the convictions for which they were elected. But in return, we should trust them when they choose not to disclose certain things, and recognize that openness and honesty are not the same thing.

Some Wordles

Linked from Katie's blog...



Very interesting. One of this journal.



And this one is of a journal I had before this one.



And this one... is of CNN.



BBC World News.



Wikipedia!



And *snicker* Conservapedia.

Because I'm on a Write-page!

Think of the word rampage. And then think of the word ramp. Now think of a wild onion fight. That's kind of where my mind is right now. Punning itself into redundancy. (Who put the pun in punishment, the torte in torture?)

I kept losing badly in Cranium Conga yesterday. Basically, you write an answer to a question down in a box, start a timer, and (for the category I kept losing in) tell them the first letter of what you wrote. If they guess in time, both people get points. But I would never get a chance to guess, or guess correctly, and when it was my turn, no one could get it! Admittedly an ingredient I'd always put in a favorite ice cream recipe being "milk" is dumb, but my dream profession being "astronaut?"

It always gets me on the Price is Right when someone bids $1 higher than someone else and then wins. I get some consolation if the person originally trumped gets up there, but that's some ruthless bidding. The worst is when someone bids $1 and then someone else bids $2. It's pretty ruthless. If I'm ever a contestant (ha) and the person next to me bids an amount one dollar higher than the other one, and I'm the last one to bid (50% chance), I'm going to bid one dollar higher than that one. I would do it when I was third, except that would allow the fourth person to basically guarantee getting it by bidding one dollar higher than me.

Your result for The Attachment Style Test...

The Cuddleslut

24% Anxiety Over Abandonment and 18% Avoidance Of Intimacy

You're mostly secure, but sometimes you need a little extra reassurance to make it through the tough times. You are usually affectionate and sweet, and you find it easy to fall in love. An encouraging word from a crush or a loved one can motivate you for weeks.

Fictional character with whom you might identify: Kaylee (Firefly/Serenity), Hiro Nakamura (Heroes)

Other Attachment Types:
Secure:	The Unicorn	|	The Cuddleslut	|	The Free Agent
Preoccupied:	The Cling Wrap	|	The Squid	|	The Insect
Fearful:	The Doormat	|	The Leper	|	The Exile
Dismissing:	The Hermit	|	The Stone	|	The Player
Confused:	The Waffler

Take The Attachment Style Test at HelloQuizzy

And I post this just because any comparison with Kaylee is a favorable one. :D

Because They Make Me Smile

The Count and Cookie Monster - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7hTkzEwFZ0&feature=related

Grover and the Big Hamburger - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GOGNE0nWHk&feature=related